Talking points: Costello has focused primarily on infrastructure and fiscal responsibility, chiefly the need for pension reform, and has laid out specific ways in which he would spend the resulting savings: Repair more roads, pay down debt, hire more police and cut property taxes.

Pros and cons: Costello chairs the council's budget committee and was a key architect behind ReBuild Houston, the controversial street and drainage repair program funded largely by a monthly fee on property owners. He argues these roles have positioned him to use his credibility on the city's thorniest issues to fix them. Skeptics question Costello's political acumen, however, and whether his reform goals are attainable, given Mayor Annise Parker's inability to achieve pension reform in her six years.

Mayoral candidate brief bio and Q&A: Steve Costello

1of3Steve Costello, left, is interviewed after a debate in September.Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

2of3Steve Costello's chance encounter with 'a bunch of people running down Woodway' led him to run in the Houston Marathon.Photo: NICK de la TORRE, CHRONICLE

3of3Mayoral candidate Steve Costello speaks during the Houston GLBT Political Caucus at the IBEW Hall, where they picked their slate of mayoral, controller and city council candidates on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015, in Houston. A large crowd of nearly 300 members, was a traditional caucus-style event, with all of the progressive mayoral candidates present.( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

(Note: The Houston Chronicle submitted these questionnaires to each campaign and asked that the candidates fill them out themselves. The responses have been edited for style, formatting and spelling.)

1. What is the biggest issue or challenge facing Houston?

As your next mayor, we're going to stop messing around with our problems, and roll up our sleeves and fix them. And that starts with my three top priorities: Fixing our roads and traffic, prioritizing public safety, and protecting taxpayer money.

While all three of those priorities are important challenges for our great city going forward, I believe that fixing our roads is priority number one. That is why I took the lead in advancing an important first step. I helped design and later pass a citywide effort called ReBuild Houston, which created a more responsible and conservative way to fund road reconstruction and drainage improvements across our entire city – moving away from decades of neglect and the failed patch and repair mindset that has plagued our city.

Here's what that has meant for you and your family in just the first few years of this 20-year program: Over the last four years, with fewer city employees and less overhead, we have funded twice as many road and drainage projects. In fact, $300 million worth. These projects have begun to fix our crumbling streets and protect our neighborhoods and homes from the threat of floods.

Just as importantly, these improvements were paid for, not by putting the city deeper in debt as has been tradition, but with a new "pay-as-you-go" system that has already lowered the city's street and drainage debt by close to $350 million. And the savings don't end there - over the next 15 years, we will lower the city of Houston's overall debt by $1.5 billion and increase annual road funding to $600 million.

I am excited the city is working to spend more money on reconstruction and maintenance today instead of trying to borrow enough money to build half as much, which is what we had done in the past.

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Make no mistake, while this was a big step in the right direction – it was also just the start. All you have to do is try to navigate your way around the potholes and daily traffic backups in your own neighborhood and across our entire city to know this isn't good enough. We can and must do better.

That's why I will continue to fight for greater, significant improvements to this system. Improvements that will ensure the promises made to Houston taxpayers are kept. In doing so, I will also ensure your city government remains laser focused on transparently re-allocating more of its resources straight into your neighborhoods, including funding sidewalks, public alleyways and damaged curbs. It is time embark on a new mission: to launch our own modern-day, "Neighborhoods to Standards" effort.

2. How would you describe Houston's pension situation? Do you agree reform is needed, and if so how would you pursue it?

Today, even with a healthy economy, Houston inexplicably stands on the edge of a fiscal cliff. The city's pension system is broken and not only puts us in a dangerous financial position, but also greatly limits our ability to tackle some of the most important issues facing Houston today.

As we compete economically against other cities and nations, we simply cannot afford to be a city with bad credit, crumbling roads, and misguided priorities. This is yet another area where as a city we can and must do better and I'd like to share with you part of my plan to do just that:

Reform starts with gaining local control of our pensions. Local control will put the decision-making power concerning municipal pensions in the hands of Houstonians...not politicians in Austin. By doing so, we can keep our promise to our firefighters, police and municipal personnel to fully fund their pensions in a way that is also fair to Houston taxpayers.

Costello on pensions.

Because Houston's financial future is bleak without comprehensive pension reform, I will continue to fight for local control. I understand this fight will be hard and there will be fierce opposition from union leaders, but it's crucial we make a strong stand to do what is right for Houston.Once we achieve local control, we would immediately move toward a more affordable, defined benefit plan as was highlighted in a February 2014 study by Retirement Horizons, Inc. The most effective reforms would include both elimination of automatic cost of living adjustments (COLAs) and the freezing of the existing deferred retirement option plan (DROP).

This pathway would yield approximately $200 million per year – $1.2 billion for the city of Houston over the next six years. These reforms would result in the at-risk firefighter, police and municipal pension systems being fully funded without the addition of new debt or greater burdens on local taxpayers.

Getting Houston's pension crisis under control would not only lead to a fully funded pension system and save our city from a financial disaster, but would also allow me as your next mayor to invest additional dollars to fix our city streets, further reduce Houston's debt, fully fund my plan to put more police in our neighborhoods, and even allow me to lower taxes for some Houston homeowners – here are the specifics:

-- Fix our deteriorating streets and work to reduce traffic: In the last few years, Houston voters passed the ReBuild Houston program, created to fund the rehabilitation and replacement of the city's street and drainage system. The city is finally beginning to invest more money, with less debt, to make much needed improvements; however, we need to be spending even more to make up for decades of underfunding and negligence. The condition of many of our streets is deplorable, and traffic continues to worsen, so I'd allocate an additional $50 million for road improvement projects.

-- Lower Houston's debt: General Fund debt service payments are projected to peak in 2018 at $381 million and annually decline due to the ReBuild Houston pay-as-you-go program. But I want an even greater and more rapid debt reduction program and would propose we set aside $50 million to defer the impact of rising debt payments on the General Fund budget. This would be accomplished while maintaining the current debt payment schedule, without changing the maturity schedule of the outstanding debt portfolio.

-- More police in our neighborhoods: I would fund five additional police cadet classes annually, resulting in an additional 350 police officers – a 6% growth in workforce. The cost would be $25 million annually. The ultimate goal is to increase the workforce by 1,500 officers pursuant to the HPD work demand analysis report. Further, since our officers deserve the best equipment available, I would allocate $25 million for the currently unfunded equipment, fleet and technology needs of the department.

-- Lower the tax rate for Houston homeowners: The remaining $50 million would be used to reduce the tax burden of the homeowner. Initially, the funds would offset the proposed increase in the 65 and older homestead exemption. The rate of increase in the exemption valuation would be at 10% annually. In the event funds are available, greater homestead exemption will be explored.

I'm convinced with Steve Costello as your mayor we can win the fight for local control in Austin. In the interim, I will use the time before the next legislative session to explore all other available means to bring the pension boards back to the table to negotiate meaningful reforms. We cannot keep putting off the inevitable and I will not continue to mask the problem.

Houston is the greatest city in the nation...but we can do better. We must improve our streets and traffic, work to secure the safety of Houstonians in every corner of the city, make sure our finances are stable, and focus on implementing a solution to our looming pension crisis with a plan that fairly and fully funds the system for our firefighters, police and municipal employees – in a way that is good for the taxpayer.

3. Taxes and city budget:

a. Do you think Houston's taxes or fees should be increased for any reason? (For example: Lifting the voter-imposed cap that limits the revenue Houston can collect from property taxes.)

Houstonians rightfully expect the city to address core services within the budget and revenue streams currently available. While we must continue to focus resources on the improvement of our streets and drainage and prioritize public safety so our neighborhoods are safe - we need to also continue to look for ways to cut wasteful spending from the city's budget and operate more efficiently. Houston taxpayers deserve nothing less. As a member of the City Council I have fought against wasteful spending and as Houston's next mayor I will take that very same approach to the budget.

As part of my pension reform plan, I also want to find a workable solution that not only fully funds our municipal pension obligations but does so in an economically-responsible way that would also allow me to cut taxes for Houston homeowners.

b. What areas of the budget would you cut, if any? Where would you put that money?

Without local control and real pension reform, we will need to engage in across the board cuts to the city's budget. In reality, all areas of our budget outside of the "pay-as-you-go" funded ReBuild Houston (that is focused on improving our road and drainage programs) and priority emergency services will be subject to some form of cuts. The situation is really that dire, and Houstonians need to understand that.

If pension reform doesn't happen in the 2017 legislative session, as you hope, will you meet the police chief's request for more officers?

4. Public safety:

a. Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland has voiced concern about understaffing at the city's police department, last year requesting $105 million to hire hundreds of new officers over the next five years. Do you think HPD's staffing concerns are valid? If so, would you fund McClelland's request and how would you do it?

Given HPD's low clearance rate in many crime categories, it's clear something needs to be done. Last year the city hired outside consultants to come in and look at our police department's organization, budget, success in clearing cases and other areas to make recommendations on how to reorganize in a manner that can address some of those clearance problems.

The results of the study prompted HPD Chief Charles McClelland to request an additional $105 million dollars over five years to hire about 1,500 new police officers and bolster departmental technology. As a Council member I've been responsive to that request by offering an amendment to this year's city budget which would fund an additional police cadet class, but that is still only a first step to getting our city the manpower it needs. As your mayor, I promise Houstonians we will achieve the additional 1,500 officer increase and following reform of pensions, additional funding of the police department will be one of my core priorities by solely relying on resources from reform-generated pension savings.

b. The city's criminal justice facilities are run down and city officials say they are inadequate for their current needs. Would you pursue a new justice complex? If so, how?

Given our current budget situation we should keep all options on the table. Cost projections to build a new facility total between $750 million to $1.2 billion, which would be between $80-100 million annually. The city has reopened bids to see if there's an option to come in below those prices through a private-public partnership, and I support continuing that discussion. Another option, which may be more feasible, is to go ahead and pay for necessary maintenance on the current facility until the city's debt structure improves in 2019-20. This facility is in dire need of repair; however, doing so cannot come at the expense of my three priorities: to improve our roads and drainage programs, prioritize public safety that will help keep our neighborhoods safe and getting our city's budget in order to include the need for immediate pension reform.

You were a key proponent of ReBuild Houston, which is unpopular with many voters. How do you address those concerns?

5. Infrastructure:

a. Would you support a proposition to repeal or greatly change ReBuild Houston?

The ReBuild Houston funding program may be the most fiscally conservative funding program in any major city in our nation. Throughout its brief history it has already resulted in 375 new and fully funded infrastructure projects, tripled funding for local street repair and drainage projects, and has already lowered Houston municipal debt by $350 million. As a result of "pay-as-you-go" and the city's recent growth, we added another $130 million towards street and drainage projects that were delayed prior to that.

The program is not perfect, but we shouldn't shelve the progress we've already made and go back to the never-ending cycle of incurring hundreds of millions more in debt, repairing fewer roads and looking the other way when Houston neighborhoods flood. Those who advocate for repeal are intentionally choosing to sacrifice a voter approved, long-term vision for our city in return for their own political ambitions and the use of convenient but factually incorrect political talking points. That or they are content to ignore our streets, traffic and drainage problems for another generation while also handing off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to our children and grandchildren. I fundamentally disagree with such an irresponsible approach.

But let me also be clear - to achieve our long-term objectives, Houston can, and must, do better with this program and as your next mayor that is exactly what I will do. Under a Costello Administration, I will dramatically improve the management and implementation of the program by:

1. Empowering the ReBuild Oversight Committee to make real recommendations on project priorities directly to the Mayor's office, rather than simply rubber-stamping the Public Works CIP plan;

2. Engaging all of the district council members in the needs assessment for street and drainage projects in their districts. Accordingly, I will direct a minimum of $5 million annually to be spent in each council district for local street improvements based on specific input from the district council member; and

3. Directing the Public Works and Engineering Department to identify and develop a minimum of 50 small projects my first year as mayor that can be quickly designed and constructed to improve primary access roads into subdivisions or in critical areas near schools, and drainage projects that could add better outfall for areas with high frequency drainage caused by downstream restrictions.

As your next mayor you should know that I will offer real leadership that puts the needs of Houston taxpayers ahead of political considerations in order to get Houston moving forward again.

b. Would you reallocate money (and how much) for road maintenance? How would you spend it?

Houstonians need to understand that the ReBuild program itself was not intended as a continuation of the city's "patch and fix" approach which has led to generations of neglect of our city's roads. Rather it is a transformational program designed to replace our crumbling road structures over 20 years.

Of total funds raised annually, ReBuild is limited to 25 percent of funds raised to go towards maintenance.

The criticism here should lie not with ReBuild, but the current administration and public works department for failing to get the resources out the door to address our problems in a timely manner. They had the money to really tackle this problem, but they have simply been too slow in responding to it.

As Houston's next mayor, I will make sure that the program operates as originally designed so that the taxpayer knows that their money is being efficiently used to better maintain our roads while still looking to make the long-term fixes required to make our great city even better.

c. The streets currently are being rebuilt to handle a "100-year" rain event, meaning the worst 1 percent of storms. Would you increase the design standards, and if so how much more money would you spend?

Prior to the mid-1980's development was occurring without a commitment to "sheet flow," which is the movement of water during a rain event. This practice was changed in 1984 by the Harris County Flood District to meet the "100 year" standard, but there are still older areas of Houston that don't meet that standard. We should work to address sheet flow in neighborhoods where the volume of runoff exceeds the capacity of the storm sewer system, and make sure the sheet flow pattern conveys the sheet flow to the ultimate outfall, which are our bayous.

d. Should the city take on a greater role in sidewalk construction and repairs?

Yes, but it's an estimated $2 billion dollar challenge. The only way to get there is first through meaningful pension reform.

6. Mobility:

a. What should Metro's priorities be over the next decade? Would you push for the completion of the University Line or commuter rail?

The city of Houston has to better maximize the existing bus system. The city recently broke ground on the Post Oak Rapid Transit bus line, and we need to consider connecting that to the existing light rail system - but that is a matter that needs to be decided by the voters.

We need to make sure our internal delivery system is completed, so transit is a reliable option for commuters. You can't have an effective commuter rail system without an effective delivery system. The ultimate threat to the city is also one of our biggest assets, and that's our growth. We should start taking steps now with existing planning resources to try to prepare for commuter rail.

b. Would you seek to encourage modes of transportation other than automobiles? If so, what and by what means?

Recently I was selected by my colleagues to chair the Houston-Galveston Area Council transportation committee. The council is made up of 8 area counties, and the committee is tasked with allocating nearly $2.8 billion dollars over the next 3 years for the region's transportation needs. This includes road construction, Metro, and other mobility alternatives such as hike and bike trails.

Although it is generally seen as an enhancement of quality of life, environmental or public health initiative (which it is), the expansion of over 200 miles of hike and bike trails within the city known as Bayou Greenways 2020 will give residents a significant mobility option as we begin to connect the individual gems that make up our city's parks. If other opportunities to enhance and connect our park system through public-private partnerships arise, I would be eager to support them.

c. Do you support the Texas Department of Transportation's $6 billion-plus plan to remake I-45 downtown? Why or why not?

It's an interesting proposal, but as an engineer I believe we're really too early in the planning process to make an educated judgement about the merits of the overall plan. I am worried about the depressed section and how it is going to handle drainage; however, I do like the idea of reclaiming the city and putting traffic down on street level.

I also appreciate the proposed design that utilizes the space above I-45 north of downtown as a green space, but I would only support a privately funded effort to pursue that particular element.

d. The location for the Houston station of the proposed Houston-Dallas high speed train has yet to be selected. Where would you suggest placing it?

First of all, I remain skeptical of the viability of the project, but specifically to the question I believe a downtown-to-downtown route would make the most sense. Obviously the key to public transportation is making sure there are connections to other delivery options, such as bus or rail, so if the project were to eventually come to fruition it needs to be convenient to the services and routes already provided.

7. Economic development:

a. Houston is consistently ranked among the cities with the worst income inequality and income segregation in the country. What do you think are the root causes? What should be done about it?

Some social scientists have argued that at least some of this inequality is directly related to the city's overall success, in that our growth has attracted more families looking to move up the socioeconomic ladder. The result can lead to families of similar incomes clustering together as neighborhoods and development respond to market demand.

As far as what the city can do about it, I think we need to look to find missed opportunities within our current city services that can be repurposed to address some of these challenges. For instance, I support a livable wage for city workers and believe our contractors should hold themselves to the same standard. Another example might be reconfiguring our library system to help residents better compete in a 21st century global economy.

The reality is that resources are scarce, and we need to leverage current local funds to secure more state, federal and private grants to provide education and job training opportunities for those in need who are willing to put in the hard work necessary to move up. I'm particularly a fan of private–public partnerships like Goldman Sachs' 10,000 small businesses program, which opens doors to investment capital for small business owners willing to go through business training offered by HCC. Programs like this make sense because they take advantage of resources we already have access to, and open them up to more of our neighbors across Houston.

b. What would be your approach to economic development incentives, whether subsidies, tax abatements or use of the Chapter 380 tool under state law?

I think our best economic tool is marketing what we already have in place: low taxes, quality work force, a climate of innovation and a low cost of living compared to other large metropolitan areas. Our central location, as well as a strong commercial transportation infrastructure which includes two international airports, one of the largest ports in the world and a connected rail system, makes companies' products easy to move in and out of Houston. As Houston's next mayor I will aggressively tout these qualities when looking to lure more business to our great city.

In general I look to incentives over subsidies. There are sources of available federal money we should do a better job of acquiring, through agencies like HUD and the USDA.

The city should also do a better job of being proactive versus reactive when it comes to development. By planning infrastructure improvements along certain corridors we can help shape an environment that encourages development but also preserves the lifeblood of our city – our neighborhoods.

c. One economic development tool is the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. More than $100 million in property taxes are generated annually inside the city's TIRZs. Critics say these zones trap money in rich areas, worsening inequities across the city. Supporters say the zones drive development, and note that because they are exempt from the revenue cap, they generate dollars the city otherwise could not collect. What would be your approach to TIRZs?

I'd like for TIRZ programs to offer more accountability and transparency to stakeholders and taxpayers. I think they should have a more certain expiration date and we should avoid the practice of rubber-stamping their requested operational extensions.

8. Term limits: Should Houston switch to two four-year terms? Why or why not? If yes, when should this change take effect? This question was asked prior to council's vote to place the item on the Nov. 3 ballot.

I support the continuation of term limits but would consider a two four-year term limit (rather than the current three two-year term limit) in order to allow council members and mayors more time to adequately monitor and manage the projects they support on behalf of their constituents without broadly adjusting the overall amount of time they are able to stay in office. If such a change is passed by Houston voters and later implemented, it should be done in a manner that staggers terms for council members, both to ensure that voters have a voice every two years and to preserve a balance of experience. I think it's necessary that if such a change was initiated, it is done in a way where a council and mayor can't vote to extend their own terms of service.

9. HERO: Do you support the Equal Rights Ordinance passed by City Council last year? If not, would you alter or repeal it? This question was asked prior to council's vote to place the item on the Nov. 3 ballot.

No one in the City of Houston should be discriminated against and I voted accordingly.